What You Deserve
by Exxal
Summary: One-shot. Shizuo actually manages to hurt Izaya, but it was an accident, and, when all is said and done, he actually feels a little bad about it.


This is set waaaay back in the beginning of Durarara! (Alternate Universe, yeah!) before Namie worked for Izaya and all that stuff. Basically, she's still the leader of that pharmaceutical company, and she decided she wanted to try some experiments on Shizuo, since he's so unusually strong, but Izaya gets in the way. May continue this, though if I do, I doubt it will be anytime soon. Right now, it'll just be a one-shot.

What You Deserve

"We'll need him alive."

The woman's voice was as cold and emotionless as her expression. She was talking to the same group of punks she always used for picking up humans that would participate as the guinea pigs in the illegal experiments of her company. Her name was Namie Yagiri.

That's not going to be easy," one of the punks, clearly the leader, said, pushing his glasses further up on his face. "Everyone says Shizuo Heiwajima is the strongest guy in Ikebukuro, and from what I've seen, I'd have to agree."

Namie opened a drawer in her metal desk and reached inside, taking out a bulky sort of handgun. He gulped as she set it on the surface of the desk, pointing it right at him.

"I've prepared this," she said, then she reached back into the drawer for a carton of shining metal tranquilizer darts, "and these, especially with that fact in mind. Heiwajima's unusual strength is my sole reason for organizing his capture. I wish to study him and find out his secret."

The leader hesitantly picked up the gun, weighing it in his hand, then he reached into the carton and took out a dart, lifting it up to the light to examine the clear liquid inside. "And shooting him with one of these will knock him out or something?"

"Precisely," Namie replied. "The liquid inside is a pure dose that, though enough to kill any normal human, my scientists assure me will merely incapacitate Heiwajima long enough for you to deliver him to this facility. We'll take it from there."

There was a long moment of consideration.

Namie sighed carelessly and waved a hand. "Of course, the pay for this job will be much better than for a normal delivery. Three times the usual rate, and that would be for each of you individually."

The punks grinned at each other, delighted, and the leader nodded at her.

"Okay. We'll do it."

xxx

Shizuo Heiwajima had been having a pretty normal day. He'd worked most of the day as a debt collector, tossing a few deadbeats and growling threats while his boss, Tom, stood and watched. They'd gotten lunch at Russia Sushi, and after a few more hours of work, Shizuo was on his way home.

_Bang!_

Shizuo froze mid-step, and something very small zipped by just centimeters in front of him, imbedding itself deep into the weathered wood of a telephone pole. He looked down at the dart, and then over to see an unfamiliar guy pointing a gun at him.

"You're pointing a gun at me," Shizuo said in a low voice, veins popping out of his forehead. He had a response he used for situations like this. "So I guess that means you're trying to kill me, right? And since you were trying to kill me, that means I can kill you, right?"

The guy paled and shot again. This time, though his arm was shaking, a dart buried itself in Shizuo's shoulder. Shizuo ripped it out and started forward, but then he paused. His arm was numb. Like, completely numb.

Shizuo growled, but stepped back. He wanted to rush forward and grind this guy into a pulp, but he didn't know how many more shots he had. It wouldn't be good if he got hit with anymore of this stuff before he had a chance to really destroy the bastard.

So Shizuo started to run. He didn't run away, just moving enough that the guy couldn't aim well enough to hit him. Darts sunk into brick walls, trees, car doors. Shizuo figured this guy _had_ to be almost out by now, so he stopped. At that same moment, he felt the familiar, crawling feeling of a bug on his skin, and he turned to see the person he hated most in the world standing only a handful of feet away.

"Izaya!" Shizuo snarled, taking a few steps forward, but then a dart shot right in front of him and made him stop short. Izaya eyes widened as he looked at the dart, then he suddenly laughed. He laughed so hard that tears beaded in the corners of his red eyes.

"Haha! Is this really happening? Shizu-chan's finally being hunted down like the beast he is! This is so fun!"

Suddenly, Shizuo grabbed Izaya by the collar of his jacket and dragged the information broker in front of him.

"Hey!" Izaya yelped, "what're you–?"

There was another loud _Bang!_, then Izaya fell silent and his body jerked as the dart hit him in the stomach. With a little swell of satisfaction, Shizuo shoved Izaya out of the way and stomped over to rip a nearby vending machine out of the ground. Before the guy with the gun could reload, the vending machine flattened him. From the painful sound and the lack of movement, Shizuo guessed that the guy was knocked cold, and would wake up in a hospital bed with a raging headache and more than a few broken bones.

_Finally,_ Shizuo thought. He grinned viciously as he remembered Izaya, and he turned, planning to beat the flea into the ground. "What were you saying, flea?" he growled. "You think me being shot at is funny, huh?"

Shizuo was expecting Izaya to give him that damned smirk and agree that, yes, it was fun, but there was nothing. It was so strange how Izaya was just standing there, staring at the ground, his shoulders hunched like there was a heavy weight pushing down on him. As Shizuo watched, Izaya wrapped a shaking hand around the dart in his middle and tugged it out. Inside the clear cylinder, the plunger had depressed and the contents of the dart emptied into Izaya's body.

But Shizuo didn't care about that. He ripped a stop sign out of the ground and stalked over, hefting it into prime swinging position. "Don't ignore me, bastard!"

Izaya looked at him with unfocused red eyes, and Shizuo saw that he was breathing heavily, though his lips were drawn into what seemed like his usual grin. Izaya turned and clumsily tried to run away, but he had hardly taken one step when, for the first time in all the years Shizuo had known him, he fell, landing right on his face. Shizuo threw back his head and laughed.

"What's the matter, I-za-ya?" he taunted. "Didn't know you were so weak that you would let a little dart like that knock you down!"

Shizuo stopped at Izaya's side and leaned down to grab him by the back of his jacket, lifting him easily into the air, high enough that he could see Izaya was still grinning. He shook the man roughly.

"Come on, bastard, snap out of it! We're not finished yet!"

Izaya opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. Shizuo lost his temper and threw him. Not as hard as usual, mind, but hard enough to send him tumbling down the road. Izaya eventually stopped, but made no attempt to get up. Shizuo snarled and advanced angrily on him, lifting the sign, about to bring it down right on Izaya's head.

A person rushed in between them suddenly, and Shizuo stopped when he recognized Celty. It was so strange how she always showed up when there was trouble. Shizuo tried to calm down as she silently typed up a message on her PDA.

[Sorry,] she wrote. [Izaya pays me for being his transporter. You wouldn't want me out of the job, right?]

Shizuo sighed and let the sign drop the the ground. "I _had_ him," he grumbled, reaching into his pocket for a cigarette. Celty's shoulders slumped in relief and she knelt down next to Izaya. A moment later, she was tugging on Shizuo's sleeve frantically.

[Shizuo! He isn't breathing!]

When Shizuo read the words, he frowned. He looked down at Izaya and saw that, though his eyes were still half-open and flickering, his chest wasn't rising and falling. Shizuo growled deep in his throat and crouched down.

"Don't play games, bastard," he warned. Izaya lolled his head over and stared at him blankly. Shizuo felt a twinge of doubt when he saw how pale Izaya was and how clearly sweat was standing out on his face. "Seriously, flea, cut it out."

In response, Izaya's eyes closed and his head fell to the side. Celty grabbed his shoulder and shook him, but nothing happened. Frantically, she jumped to her feet and started dragging Izaya towards her bike. Shizuo watched in shock, his cigarette dangling from his lips, then he walked over and picked Izaya up. As Celty swung herself onto her bike, he placed Izaya's wilted body behind her, and she tied him in place with some of her shadows and then roared off at top speed.

And Shizuo was left standing there, staring after them, wondering what was going on.

Then, after a moment, Shizuo got angry. He stalked over to the vending machine and kicked it away, then he bent down and grabbed fistfuls of the guy's shirt.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded, violently jerking him off the ground. "Wake up and tell me, dammit!"

The guy groaned and blinked, slowly focusing on Shizuo's angry face. "Oh god," he rasped. "Please, don't kill me!"

"Start talking and I'll think about it," Shizuo spat. "And don't even think about lying!"

The guy started talking, and it seemed like he'd never stop. Shizuo tone out most of it, only catching the important bits. The head of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals ordered him to do it; she had given him the gun and the darts; she wanted to experiment on him; the darts were deadly, but they were only supposed to stun him...blah blah blah...

Wait.

Shizuo glared at the guy. "Say that again."

"Huh? Say what?"

"The part about the darts."

So the guy repeated it. The woman had told him that the stuff in the darts was enough to kill a normal human, but it wouldn't kill him. Shizuo immediately dropped the guy back to the ground and straightened, then he walked over to the other side of the vending machine. Wedging the toe of his shoe under it, he flipped the vending machine back onto the guy, knocking him unconscious again.

"I told you not to lie," Shizuo growled, then he started home. Stupid punk, trying to make him think that the flea would die. Who did he think he was talking to? Shizuo had been trying to kill Izaya for years, and now he was expected to believe that he'd done it by accident?

Shizuo chuckled under his breath. He knew better than anyone how hard it was to kill Izaya; there's no way some dinky little dart with a few tablespoons of liquid in it could do it. No way.

But it was strange that Shizuo still felt like there was something missing, even though Izaya was alive. Strange that he couldn't picture himself chasing Izaya tomorrow, that the little spark of anger he always carried in his chest for the flea was fading out.

_Dammit,_ Shizuo thought, forcefully reviving the spark by remembering Izaya's smirk, his laugh, his mocking red eyes. _I hate violence, but I'm not going to just let the flea off that easily. Even when I kill him, I'm still going to hate him. That bastard's practically devoted his whole life to fucking with me so I can't forget him even if I wanted to, and so I'll hate him for the rest of my life, because that's what he deserves._

A week later, as Shizuo was looking down at Izaya's tombstone in the pouring rain, the spark died.

The End


End file.
